Semyon Kosberg

Semyon Kosberg (1903 to 1965) was a Soviet engineer who specialised in aircraft and rocket engines. Born in Slutsk, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1931 and worked in some of the largest design organisations of the Soviet aircraft industry. In 1941 he was appointed chief designer of the design bureau later known as OKB-154, which he led until his death in Voronezh in 1965. He is known for aircraft engines fitted to the Lavochkin La-5, the La-7 and other mass-produced wartime aircraft. From 1946 to 1965 he supervised the development of a series of liquid-fuel rocket engines used on the final stages of carrier rockets that put piloted spacecraft, satellites and interplanetary stations into orbit. He held a doctorate of technical sciences, received the Lenin Prize in 1960 and the title Hero of Socialist Labour in 1961, and a crater on the far side of the Moon bears his name.